Marvel Announces MAJOR changes in their new AVENGERS line-up!

Line up (top to bottom, left to right):Medusa (Queen of the Inhumans), Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes), Angela (she was in Image’s SPAWN series, but Marvel heroes have a history of breaking the universe and now she’s in the Marvel U), Lady Thor, Captain America (Sam Wilson), Inferno and Deathlok.

First off, this is probably one of the coolest line-ups I’ve seen in years. Secondly, #nerdrage is about to ensue for some obvious reasons.

Most notably for two reason: 1) Sam Wilson (formerly Falcon and Cap’s BEST FRIEND) will now be the new Captain America and 2) Thor is now a female (still not clear on the details, so another post about this will follow).

This is the fireworks factory we’re arriving at, and now everything’s going to blow up and be very pretty and exciting to look at. It leads into an evolution of Steve Rogers’ character that I had very early when I was given the job. I think that it’s important with these stories to do things that are natural and make sense and have an inherent logic to the universe, but are also constantly shifting and exciting, keeping the drama high. In order to do that it really comes down to creating new dynamics.

“I’ve been having a lot of fun writing Sam. It’s a completely different attitude. The fact that he’s not a soldier shifts things up a bit. Sam’s not going to be Steve. Steve can be very rigid. That can be kind of joyless at times, whereas Sam is absolutely not that.

Tom Brevoort, Editor:

While Sam shares many of Steve’s beliefs in a general sense, he’s also a very different person with a very different background. He didn’t grow up in the 1930s, he’s a modern day man in touch with the problems of the 21st Century. For most of his professional life, Sam has worked as a social worker, so he’s seen the worst of urban society up close, and how crime, poverty, lack of social structure and opportunity can affect the community. So he’s got perhaps a greater focus on the plight of the common man, and perhaps a greater empathy for the underprivileged than maybe even Steve himself. He’s also not a military man, so he’s more apt to be instinctively skeptical of any situation that calls for just following orders. Sam, like Steve, will be led by his personal morality and beliefs as to what is right and what is wrong—and where his beliefs may differ in their shading from those of the previous Cap are where the interesting stories will be found.

This is the most exciting (controversial) news out of marvel in years. Now, I get the purist rage that has ensued, but it’s completely ignorant of the history of Captain America and the fact that Cap hasn’t always been Caucasian, nor was Steve Rogers the only Captain America. In essence, it’s purely rage for rage’s sake.

In Truth: Red, Black & White (2003) by Robert Morales, we see the Tuskegee Experiment style treatment of Black Army soldiers who test subjects for the super soldier serum that was lost when used on Steve Rogers to make him into the icon he is today. Unfortunately, like most test trials, there are casualties. Many of the soldiers were horribly disfigured or became mentally insane, except for Isaiah Bradley. He was the only subject to endure the serum and don the Captain America costume. As art imitates real life, so did the fact that this aspect of the Captain America lore was hidden for decades and Steve (when he found out) was moved greatly in the understanding that men like Isaiah suffered following him as he became the symbol of “the American ideal”. Isaiah, much older now is mentally challenges and handicapped as the imperfect serum ravaged his body and mind over the years, while he slowly aged. Often, Steve will go to his home and pay respects to Isaiah and his family.

Josiah X (fka Justice)

His son, Josiah (Josiah X fka Justice) Bradley, inherited his strength and enhances skills by birth and was last seen in the pages of the incredible, but short-lived series, The Crew. His grandson, Patriot (Elijah Bradley) is part of the Young Avengers and while didn’t inherit his grandfather’s enhanced abilities like his Uncle, he eventual did in a transfusion from his grandfather.

Patriot (aka Elijah (Eli) Bradely)

The point being, the Captain America mantel and lore is deep and Blacks (African-Americans, for the PC crowd) are as much a part of it as Bucky and Peggy/Sharon Carter. Seriously, it’s not that serious.